An Uneven Justice Florida`s Police Licensing Board Is Uneven In Meting Out Punishment For Misconduct, A Sun-sentinel Investigation Has Found. Some Officers Think The Board Acts Like A Kangaroo Court, While Critics Argue That Penalties Are Too Lenient.

July 24, 1991

DRUGS

Officers hauled before the police commission on drug charges usually lose their licenses. But not all the time.

CASE A

Brian Pierce, then an investigator with the Dade County schools, said his problems began with a weekend trip he and his fiance took with another couple to the Florida Keys.

Normally, he told the commission, he did not drink a lot. But this weekend he polished off as much as three six-packs of beer in an afternoon while fishing from a bridge. He downed several cocktails at dinner, and more drinks later that evening. He fell asleep on the couch of an apartment the couples were sharing.

As Pierce woke up later in the evening, his buddy decided to play a joke on him. He handed the groggy cop a marijuana cigarette, according to commission testimony.

Pierce, who smokes, didn`t know he was inhaling marijuana. He choked and gave it back. He forgot about the incident. But soon after, a routine urine test came up positive for pot and he lost his job.

Months later, as Pierce faced loss of his police license, his fiance reminded him about the night in the Keys. He told his story before a hearing officer, who ruled that the state had not established that Pierce knowingly possessed pot, or that he lacked good moral character. The hearing officer recommended that the case be dismissed.

The commission agreed in January.

CASE B

Nobody produced any physical evidence to prove that Mack Short had used marijuana.

It did not matter. Despite his emotion-choked appeal for mercy at the commission`s January meeting, commissioners voted to yank Short`s police license.

Short was a guard at the Florida State Prison in 1987 when a fellow employee accused him of smoking marijuana. Short denied the charge, but he resigned and went to work for the Starke Police Department.

After taking testimony from witnesses, a state hearing officer ruled in November 1989 that Short had smoked pot several times. But he recommended a reprimand as punishment.

The commission rejected that recommendation. Commissioners stated that use of pot violated laws requiring police to have good moral character. Short was through as a cop. Short, now working as an investigator with the Bradford County Public Defenders Office, is appealing through the courts.

FALSE RECORDS

Of 12 roughly similar cases of lying or falsifying records reviewed by the Sun-Sentinel, six lost their licenses; six did not.

CASE A

Davie Police Officer Howard Fox falsified records 49 times in order to collect $707.48 to which he was not entitled, commission records state.

Davie police sought to press grand theft and official misconduct charges against Fox. But after hearing Fox give defenses that ``a sympathetic jury might believe,`` the Broward State Attorney`s Office decided not to prosecute, records state.

Fox was ordered to repay the money and counseled about submitting false time sheets. In February 1990, he was again accused of taking about $8 in improper overtime payments, records state. He was ordered to repay that sum and suspended for two days. The commission found no cause to revoke his police certification.

Fox, who remains on the Davie police force, denied falsifying records. He said he was following terms of the police union`s contract with the town.

CASE B

The Volusia County Sheriff`s Office fired Marvin Lettman in June 1989 for padding time sheets to pocket $680.04 in undue pay. He did not dispute the allegations. No criminal charges were filed, but Lettman, a five-year employee, was ordered to repay the money. He did so, at least in part, records state. After filing a complaint against Lettman charging him with falsifying records, the police commission revoked his certification in February.

EXCESSIVE FORCE

A Sun-Sentinel review of eight excessive force cases showed four officers lost their certification, while four did not.

CASE A

Officer Michael Dipolito remains a Pinellas County sheriff`s deputy even though he slammed into a suspect so hard that he knocked out two of the man`s teeth and dented a car. Dipolito claimed the man was reaching for a gun during the August 1989 drug bust. But witnesses and a videotape contradict him. The Sheriff`s Office sought to fire Dipolito. But after a civil service board hearing, he was reprimanded and reinstated. The police commission found no cause to revoke his certificate.

CASE B

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jerry Stier lost his job and his career after a dispute with a neighbor got out of hand. Stier`s two daughters took refuge with the neighbor after arguing with their stepmother. Stier was not home at the time. The next day he went to the neighbor`s house to pick up his girls. An argument ensued. The neighbor accused Stier of grabbing her. He pleaded no contest to two counts of battery, was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service and got six months` probation. The commission suspended his license for two years.